


Nightmares and Fire

by Tweezers



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-02-12 04:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12951078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tweezers/pseuds/Tweezers
Summary: Magnus has nightmares. Alex has them too. You know where this is going.





	1. Chapter 1

Alex Fierro is standing in front of me, tears streaming down his face, his eyes producing them at an alarming rate. Bruises are spread across his face, and upon closer inspection I realize that they’re the imprints of a hand. A slap, hard enough to mark. 

I want to get closer, to heal him, to comfort him, but I can’t move. “Did you really think that I would ever want to be with a freak like you?”, I hear someone say. “You’re a misfit, a mistake. You don’t deserve to be alive, let alone be in Valhalla.” The voice sounds familiar, but I can’t see who it belongs to. “You should be glad I haven’t run you through and put you down.”

I raise my hand, fingers outstretched as if to cup his face, but Alex flinches away. “Leave”, I hear the same voice say. “Leave. Leave the Hotel and don’t come back, vermin.” Even as Alex turns away, I realize who the voice and the imprint of the hand belong to. 

Me.

Alex flees, the door slamming shut behind him, and the noise jerks me out of my sleep, into a tangle of sheets and darkness. 

Before Sam swooped down and grabbed me, and before I became a permanent resident of Hotel Valhalla, I used to be able to sleep just fine. I didn’t have a problem with staying asleep, nor was I plagued with nightmares, although sometimes I did have a problem finding somewhere to sleep in the first place. So obviously, instead of my problem disappearing and leaving me a happy little einherjar, it swapped places. Now I have a nice bed to sleep in, in a nice room, in a nice hallway that I only die in about twice a week, and I absolutely cannot sleep. 

It’s like one of the last things I remember from my time in middle school: ‘Every action has an equal and opposite reaction’, Newton’s third law of...something. I’ve had a lot of time to think about these things, when I’m busy failing at falling asleep after waking up from another nightmare, and I’ve come up with my own law. 

‘Every time something nice happens to you, the universe will put a nice big sting in it.’ 

Accurate, eh?

I sigh, and climb out of bed. Jack is snoozing on the bedside table in pendant form, no doubt dreaming about some sexy lady sword. For some reason, despite having slaughtered giants by flying up their nostrils, he isn’t plagued by nightmares. I’ve put it down to the fact that his favourite music is off the Top 40 charts. If he can listen to those, there’s not much else that can be nightmare material. 

Pulling on a pair of loose woolen pants and a threadbare T-shirt, I gently open my door and move into the hallway. At this time of the night, the torches along the wall are burning low, casting more shadows than light. The far corner, opposite the elevator doors has a fireplace now, with a few chairs and sofas spread around it in a loose semicircle. The fireplace is lit, burning softly through the darkness. I head towards it, treading as quietly as I can. If I can’t sleep, I might as well be warm. And the fire provides excellent entertainment, if you learn to look for shapes in it. My mom taught me how to do it once, when we were out camping. She said the most common shapes were dragons and trees, but you had to be quick to catch them, since they were only around for about half a second. I got good at picking out the shapes over the years, watching fires in shelters and braziers on the street. Somehow, it's comforting. 

With my eyes already fixed on the dancing flames, I pad towards the center couch, planning to curl up there and hope that I fall asleep sometime during the night. There is just one problem with that plan though, a problem that materializes on the couch when I reach it. A green haired, pyjama clad, Alex Fierro shaped problem. 

I stop mid - step and stare, breathing as quietly as I can so that I don’t wake Alex up and get my head cut off for the second time in one day. I can tell that she's female, and she's curled up on the couch, eyes closed and facing the fire. I stand there for a few seconds, and then turn away. I want nothing more than to curl up next to her on the couch, but I know that Alex doesn't want that level of closeness yet. Apart from a couple more kisses, and a quick victory hug once when we managed to take down a Drakon on the battlefield, we haven't gone any further since we got back from our Quest. She certainly hasn't started spouting confessions of love like I did on Naglfar. 

I tiptoe back to my room, taking extra care not to make noise, but a low sound cuts through the darkness and stops me in my tracks. It's a low keening, coming from the part of the hallway that I just turned my back on. 

Alex. 

I turn, and go back. Standing in front of the couch, I realize that Alex is making the noise, still asleep. Even as I watch she whimpers a little and withdraws into herself some more. Do I wake her up? Do I risk waking her up? The decision is made for me when she starts whining louder, the air escaping from her in short bursts, and her body rocking back and forth in tight jerky movements. 

“Alex, Alex, Alex…”

I shake her shoulder gently, and then harder, repeating her name, until she finally stops and opens her eyes. I see her pupils dilate in the shadows, the mismatching colours gleaming with the reflection of the flames. She's still breathing hard, short shallow breaths that end abruptly when she says my name. 

“Magnus?”

“I'm here.” 

“Y-You’re real?”

I raise the hand that was on her shoulder and push the green out of her face. “Do I feel real?”

“What're you doing here?”

“Couldn't sleep. I wanted to come and watch the fire but you were on the couch and I didn't want to wake you up, so I was just going.”

Alex pushes herself up on her elbow. She still looks scared, as if I might strike her. The thought brings back the memory of my nightmare, and my hand tightens on her shoulder. 

And then she’s clutching me, and crying her heart out on my sleeve.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A quick look at the situation.

Any other time, I would’ve been over the moon if Alex had ended up next to me, leaning against my shoulder. It was something that I’d spent an embarrassing amount of time thinking about. 

Of course, when I usually thought about it, she wasn’t burrowed into said shoulder after having sobbed into it for fifteen minutes straight. 

We’ve ended up on the carpet, sitting side by side, just staring into the flames. I had no idea what to do, so I just sort of patted her and made various soothing noises. About five minutes ago, Mallory opened her door, and peeked out. When she saw us, she froze for a second and then closed it. I wish she hadn’t. An Alex that makes rude jokes, takes the piss out of me mercilessly and swings a garrote around with precisely zero concern for any grievous bodily harm I can handle. An Alex that completely breaks down so openly, not so much. 

What the Hel do I do now?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex Doesn't Want To Talk About It™, but Magnus does.

Alex's next move was to curl up on top of my legs, her green locks tickling my nose. This made two things happen; one, it made my heartbeat spike enough that I could feel it through my hands, and two, it made my next move much easier. Lifting Alex was deceptively complicated, and so was stumbling through the lobby to her room and inside. Her place was a mess, with clay shards scattered everywhere and bits of debris littering the sofas. Her bed was clear though, so I headed straight there and deposited my armful of napping, tear streaked einherjie. The whole place was eerily quiet after my previous visits, which had been invariably flavoured with some anime theme songs blasted at full volume, so I turned and made my way to the door as stealthily as I could. 

As I turned the doorknob however, the silence was broken. 

‘Stay with me.’

Alex was standing now. She was looking straight at me, with an expression that was so alien on her that it took me a moment to place it. 

Pleading.

Alex Fierro, rocker of wildly contrasting sweater vests, wielder of a garrote courtesy of Lady Sif herself, master of sarcasm and anime lover extraordinaire, was pleading with me. 

Wordlessly, I took my hand from the knob and moved back in. 

We sat on the grass in her atrium, looking up at the leaves slowly shifting above us, the room's lights turned down low enough that I could just barely make out the sharp angles of Alex's face. 

‘Why were you out there, then?’

Alex's words are slightly slurred, no doubt due to the fact that it's an ungodly hour to be awake. 

‘Nightmares worthy of Hel. You?’

‘Heh. Same.’

‘What about?’

‘Don’t suggest that I talk about it.’

‘It'll make you feel better. You know I'm a wonderful listener.’ I tried for a winning smile, although it felt more like a grimace, so it was probably best that Alex couldn’t see me in the dark. 

‘Only ‘cos you're terrible at conversation, Mags. And besides, I doubt even your sunshiny-ness could make me feel better.’ She looked away from me, tilting her head backwards even further so that I could make out the rise of her collarbones, like the spreading wings of a falcon. 

‘Try me.’

‘Let it go, Mags.’ I could feel the impatience building in her voice. Irrationally, I wanted to know what sort of a nightmare could push Alex Fierro out of her room. Ignoring the little Jack (Mini Jack? Jack Lite?) in my head and his whispered warnings, I kept talking. 

‘But if you just tried-’

‘Dammit, Magnus, I dreamt that I lost all this, OK? I dreamt that all of this was just some elaborate figment of my imagination and that I was still stuck with my parents, still pretending to be someone that I'm not, and y-you weren't even real, OK! How does that compare to whatever dumb nightmare you had, about your falafel stash running out or whatever?’

She was breathing harder now, and I thought that I could just make out the reflection of light in a tear rolling down her cheek. 

Like and idiot, I still kept talking. 

‘I dreamed that I kicked you out of Valhalla, like you didn’t belong here.’

She stared at me for a long moment, and then moved to stand. 

‘Alex, wait.’ I scrambled over and pulled her back down by her pyjama cuff. ‘I came to the fire because it hurt me, all right? It made me hate myself so much that it woke me up. I wouldn’t - couldn’t ever do something like that.’ 

‘Cos I love you, Alex.’

The words slipped out, which left me stunned and Mini Jack shaking his head sadly. I froze, looking at Alex, while she looked back at me. 

And then she leaned forward and kissed me. Her hands rested themselves on my shoulders, both holding onto me and supporting me as she deepened the kiss, moving closer to me, and I felt the horror and hatred of my imagination dissolve bit by bit. 

And then she smiled against me and whispered the words that blew then away once and for all. 

‘Love you too, Maggie.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, a chapter. 
> 
> Many cookies go to you, dear reader. Bonus cookies if you actually waited the *gulp* seven months it took me to get this out. 
> 
> Let me know what you think if you want to, and thanks once again for reading :D


End file.
